Ball joints having sheet metal sockets are known. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,979,353 discloses a ball joint having a sheet metal socket. The ball joint of U.S. Pat. No. 2,979,353 includes a stud and a bearing supporting the stud in the sheet metal socket. The socket is a single piece of sheet metal which is shaped in a die forming process. At one stage in the die forming process, the piece of sheet metal has a cylindrical shape defining a chamber with an opening. The stud and the bearing are inserted into the chamber through the opening. The piece of sheet metal is then deformed in the die forming process to reduce the size of the opening so that the bearing and the ball end of the stud are enclosed within the socket chamber. When the piece of sheet metal is deformed to reduce the size of the opening, it is forced from a cylindrical shape into a spherical shape. The bearing within the socket chamber is thereby forced into a spherical shape. It is known that the sheet metal material of a socket tends to gather at the opening when being deformed from a cylindrical shape to a spherical shape.